[00:00:00] Cynthia Garcia: Every time we eat sugar, we are reinforcing those neurological pathways, causing the brain to become increasingly hardwired to crave sugar, building up a tolerance like any other drug. 

[00:00:15] Welcome back to The Transformational Nutrition podcast. The podcast that is redefining nutrition as anything that feeds you physically, mentally, and spiritually. I am your host, Cynthia Garcia, the founder and CEO of the Institute of Transformational Nutrition.

[00:00:30] Now in today’s episode, we are talking about the spirituality of sugar addiction. Now this is not your typical sugar is bad for you. You can be addicted. Here’s how you stop eating it. This episode really goes deep.

[00:00:45] So let’s dive right. All right, I want to go back in time for a moment to my middle school years. I know bear with me. It probably pulls back some memories for you of middle school. It was a very interesting time, wasn’t it? So I had this history teacher when I was in middle school, and this teacher,I had some really interesting teachers in my time, this particular one wanted nothing more than for students to actually pay attention in her class.

[00:01:13] Because, you know, as a middle school kid, you’re thinking about the future, going through a lot of changes, you kind of want to just grow up and be on your own and experience all of these things. You don’t want talk about history.Like, that’s for old people. That was old people’s stuff. Right? Like that’s what I thought when I was in sixth grade.

[00:01:32] And, but this teacher. I mean, I got to give it to her. She really tried hard to make the lessons interesting. She made some fun games so we could learn the material. Like she was awesome. She gave it everything she got. She deserves a medal. That’s a true statement. But the one thing that she did that I’ll never forget to persuade us to pay attention is she would hand out candy to us every time we answered a question. 

[00:01:57] In fact, she wanted us to just participate so badly that even if we got the question wrong, she’d still throw us one of those little bite sized candy bars. You know, the ones that you get at trick or treat. Not the good houses where you get like the big, full on candy bars. But the little smidges the little tiny bite sizes.

[00:02:15] She’d just throw them across the room. And it was amazing. It was incredible. Everyone loved going to her class and it wasn’t the cheap candy. It was the good stuff, right. It was like little Snickers bars and so on and so forth. So we were in heaven and here’s the thing. It wasn’t just the fact that we were getting sugared up on candy that made her class so fun.

[00:02:34] It was the fact that all of us felt so rewarded for doing something as simple as just paying attention in class. Now it felt so good to be acknowledged. It felt like my voice mattered. And to know that my teacher really cared about what I had to say to know that I got rewarded, even if I got a question wrong.

[00:02:56] So looking back, I mean, those are some pretty fond memories. Like there are days I wish I could just go back to that classroom and talk with that teacher again, just sit down and have a conversation with her. And I also see those times through a different lens. Okay. So there’s a few things to unpack here.

[00:03:15] So first of all, you know, as I’ve said, many times before, growing up, my family didn’t have very much money. And sometimes those little pieces of candy were almost my only food source until I got home that day. And so I tried to be really talkative in her class. So that was first of all. And that was kind of a deeper rooted thing.

[00:03:34] But second I was a sixth grader being fed sugar on a daily basis. And I came to crave that sugar. I mean, well, if I was ever out sick for a day or two, all I could think about was the candy that I was missing out on. And if someone else got called on and I didn’t, I’d get jealous. I wanted that hit. Right. I wanted that sugar rush.

[00:03:56] So that was the second thing that was going on, just sugar on a regular basis when I didn’t have a lot of other food to balance that out. And then third sugar was being programmed in my brain to equal happiness success, validation, and a reward. Right. I was being seen, I was being heard. It felt like I matter.

[00:04:17] And this is a key factor. You see, I grew up thinking if he did a good job at something, or you were celebrating something, you should get a treat. You should get some chocolate, you should get some sugar. And honestly, isn’t that how our society treats sugar as a whole? I mean, think about it. Birthday cakes, holiday pies, Halloween candy.

[00:04:39] We celebrate at the end of a long day with dessert for dinner. I mean, think about it. I mean, I can’t even tell you the number of times I’ve been like in line at a Starbucks or something. And somebody says, oh, give me the pastry. I deserve it. It’s been a long week. I deserve it right as if that is what is what we deserve.

[00:05:00] We love spotlighting the stories and transformations of our students here at ITN. I’m especially excited to share Jared Fisher’s journey from being told he had a debilitating disease and suffering a horrific accident to being a certified transformational nutrition coach with his own thriving product-based business. Let’s meet Jared now.

[00:05:30] Jared Fisher: I was in an accident when I was 17 years old. And I woke up or I regained consciousness underwater. And I remember thinking at the time, like, this is how my life’s going to end. I’ve been a huge surfer my whole life. And I was involved in a surfing accident. I had several surgeries to repair the injury after that. I was always a really small kid growing up. I never really had a growth spurt. And so that was really a source of, I would say, insecurity for me and contributed to an overall lack of confidence. 

[00:06:07] And then when I had this injury to my face, that just kind of made it worse because I had these horrific scars on my face. I would say that really started this downward spiral. Well, it turned into alcohol and drug abuse and really just living a lifestyle that was not supportive of good health. And then I found myself in my late twenties, and I started having really bad, lower back pain. And I saw a couple of doctors and they’re looking at my MRI and they’re like, whoa, this looks horrible.

[00:06:39] They diagnosed me with degenerative disc disease. There’s really no cure. And basically I was told, yeah, your spine looks like that of somebody in their sixties. From there, the daily drinking continued. I was put on prescription pain medication. Things just kind of continued to spiral and get worse from there.

[00:07:05] Cynthia Garcia: So from a young age, even we start to incorporate sugar or relate sugar to happiness, to love, to good things. So let’s get into this and really dive deep into sugar and look at it in a way that maybe you haven’t thought about looking at it. Sugar has been evolving in our society for hundreds of years. I mean, our brains are hardwired to make us love sweet stuff.

[00:07:33] There was an absolutely crucial evolutionary adaption when food was scarce, like our ancestors may have gone days or even weeks without food. So when they came up on a sweet high calorie food, they ate as much of it as they could. These high caloric foods would provide for the function of the day and then the body stored any leftover sugar as glycogen.

[00:07:55] So there was energy available to run away from danger or keep moving forward or just find more food. Right? The fact was you needed this glycogen stored so that you could do the things that you needed to do, including hiding from the tigers, right. Or hunting more food for later. Now when there was an abundance of sugar or more that could be used for the day are stored as glycogen.

[00:08:17] Of course, the body, as you may or may not know stores it as fat. And even that was okay back in the day because these fat stores could be pulled on in times of famine. Right now, those times of famine, or obviously we’re a lot more frequent back then than they are today, but those fat stores really kept our ancestors alive.

[00:08:38] Today, we don’t really want to store fat so much, but back then, oftentimes our ancestors depended on it to survive. So let me walk you through a timeline so that you get a better understanding of just how sugar has evolved, how it’s become a real addiction, and how this crisis, especially in America has only gotten worse.

[00:09:02] So sugar cane used to be a labor intensive crop that had to be cut by hand and immediately harvested for juices. But then in 1795, a new Orleans farmer figured out how to granulate the first sugar crystals. And it became a product that could last longer than just a few days before it spoiled. Sugar plantations appeared on both sides of the Mississippi river.

[00:09:25] And thus the proliferation of the sweet stuff became just another market for the U.S. to profit. Now, additionally, the factors that led to our state of sugar consumption, or even further entwined with American history, because you see back during prohibition, back in the 1920s and the thirties, people turned to soda to replace, or sometimes supplement their nightcaps.

[00:09:48] And so sugary drinks become a staple in the American diet. By the time prohibition ended, we were just too hooked on soda to let it go. And the final straw was in 1977 when the Senate select committee on nutrition and human needs published its first edition of dietary guidelines for the United States.

[00:10:07] Now this report was focused on curbing excess intake of fat, which was believed then to directly cause heart attacks. Americans were instead encouraged to be a diet high in carbohydrates instead. And thus the low fat craze was born. Now, the only problem is when you take the fat out of foods. Well, it doesn’t taste as good.

[00:10:29] So food manufacturers started putting in extra sugar to make the food taste good, right? To bring their products back to a level where people actually wanted to eat them. So what happened was Americans bought into that. They started buying more fat-free yogurt, fat-free milk, fat free muffins, everything that was just loaded with tons of additional sugar.

[00:10:54] So fast forward a few decades, and here we are. Sugar lurks and hides in almost every single thing we purchase from the store and not just sweet stuff either. I mean, spaghetti sauce. Spaghetti sauce has a ton of sugar. 

[00:11:10] Listen in as Jared shares his turning point and what spurred him and his family into action when it came to their health.

[00:11:22] Jared Fisher: I remember one day I was literally laying on the couch. I could barely move. And my kids, they were young at the time and they came up to me and they’re like, Hey dad, you want to go outside and play? And I was just like, it just kinda hit me. I’m like, I can’t even get up and go play with my kids. And so it all kind of came to a head.

[00:11:39] I actually went to see a doctor and he told me that I had Andropause, which is basically the male equivalent of menopause. Me going through that my wife come to find out she’s had Hashimoto’s, which is an auto-immune disease. I was experiencing what I was going through, which included drinking every day, eating out every day, taking pain medication every day.

[00:12:05] My daughter was having allergic reactions to a lot of the things that she was eating. My son was having anxiety. So my wife was the one who really took the bull by the horns and initiated change for the family by, you know, starting to make all of our food. We stopped eating out every day, and it just went from thinking that we were healthy or doing things that were supportive of good health. But in reality, we weren’t. To making the shift where health became the focal point of both of our lives. And it was no more eating out. It was making every meal that we were eating from scratch and really reinforcing these health habits.

[00:12:50] Cynthia Garcia: All right. So I said at the beginning of this episode that we were going to be talking about sugar, but we’re going to go a little bit deeper. We’re going to be talking about sugar addiction, but let’s talk about that on an even deeper level. Right? So how can you become addicted to sugar? Is that really a thing? We like to talk about it like it is, I’m just addicted to sugar. I have a sweet tooth. I gotta have my sugar. Right.

[00:13:13] And let me just clarify I don’t mean the level of addiction that’s like, oh my gosh I’m so addicted to that show on Netflix. I got to watch it every week. I got to watch it. I got to sit down. It’s my time. That’s not what I’m talking about. I want to talk about whether or not sugar is an addictive substance, like cocaine or another drug, something similar. 

[00:13:33] Now in medicine, the term addiction refers to a tragic situation where someone’s brain chemistry has been altered to compel them to repeat a substance or activity despite harmful consequences. So eating sugar releases opioids and dopamine into our bodies, which is really the link between sugar and addictive behavior. Now, dopamine is that fun little neuro-transmitter. That is a key part of the reward circuit. It’s associated with addictive behavior. So when a certain behavior causes an excess release of dopamine, you feel a pleasurable high.

[00:14:10] And you are inclined to want to re-experience that over and over and over. And so what you do is you repeat the behavior that gave you that release of dopamine in the first place. Now as you repeat that behavior more and more, your brain starts to adjust, to release less dopamine. And so the only way to fill the same high as before is to repeat the behavior in increasing amounts and frequency.

[00:14:39] And that’s what leads to addiction, because eventually you can’t get enough of the substance that you need to consume. And so you consume more and more and more. Just to feel a similar sort of dopamine release. Now sugar activates the opiate receptors in our brain, and it affects the reward center, which leads to compulsive behavior.

[00:15:03] Despite the negative consequences that you encounter, like weight gain, hormone, imbalances, blood sugar, regulation, and so much. So every time we eat sugar sweets, we are reinforcing those neurological pathways, causing the brain to become increasingly hardwired, to crave sugar, building up a tolerance like any other drug.

[00:15:25] As a matter of fact, at one point sugar was classified as as drug. Now, additionally, the American psychiatric association lists several key markers for addiction, including intense cravings for the drugs intoxication, which they define as an intense pleasure, calm or high, failed attempts to cut down on substance use, tolerance and withdrawal symptoms upon termination of substance use.

[00:15:52] I mean, think about that. These all fit the bill for dependence on sugar. But with all that being said, there’s a great Scottish proverb that says they always speak of my drinking, but never my thirst. And that friends is what we’re here to talk about today. Can we talk about the brownies and the food industry and everything that is bad in that world without talking about our impulse to eat these things?

[00:16:24] Right, because aren’t, we really begging the question what are you really hungry for? What are you really hungry for? And this is the meat and potatoes so to speak of today’s episode. 

[00:16:42] Jared is leveraging his certified transformational nutrition certification in a different way than many coaches who become certified do. And we not only encourage that, but we love it when our students use their education in a way that inspires and motivates them to go out and impact the world in a better, healthier way.

[00:17:05] Jared Fisher: I would say I’m definitely not using it in the traditional capacity. A lot of people probably think that this program is designed for somebody who wants to work with clients one-on-one or in a small group setting. And I would say this is a great program for those who want to do that. But I would say it’s definitely not limited to those who want to work with others, one-on-one, myself being an example. 

[00:17:36] So my wife and I, about a year ago, we decided to take one of the recipes that she’s been making, which is a pancake and waffle mix and turn that into a food company. It’s called Organically Food. For me, the way I’ve leveraged, that is part of the program was dedicated to nutrition aspect. Part of the program was dedicated to a psychology spirituality, but there’s also this running a business component. 

[00:18:05] And although I’ve been running a business in a completely different industry for the past 16 years, I was really looking for some guidance there to help leverage nutrition and health knowledge and translate that into the business that my wife and I have launched. There’s so much of what I’ve taken from that program has been applied to what we’re doing with Organically Foods. The whole business incubator part of the CTNC program. There’s some amazing resources there.

[00:18:50] Cynthia Garcia: You see, when we look inside and we listen deeply to our relationship with sugar, we often find that our internal conflict with sugar isn’t necessarily about sugar at all. Rather our desire for sugar is a consequence of how we relate to our innate human needs for belonging, closeness, contact, warmth, joy connection, and even pleasure.

[00:19:12] It has to do with spirituality, which in case you didn’t know is the third pillar of transformational nutrition. There’s physical nutrition, mental nutrition, and spiritual neutral. Okay, but how like sugar spirituality, I get it, Cynthia connection and belonging. Spirituality doesn’t have to mean that you believe in a God or a higher power, although it can, but for our purposes here at ITN, spirituality simply means connection with yourself, with others and with the environment in a way that gives you purpose and makes you feel fulfilled.

[00:19:52] And the truth is a lot of us struggle with finding this deep connection. And when we don’t get it, we begin to fill needy and empty. It creates a hole, a void. So we try to fill that void of longing, that emptiness that we feel. We know we need something and there’s many ways to fill that void. We fill it by gambling, by shopping, by indulging in social media.

[00:20:20] And of course, by eating sometimes drinking. So sugar then becomes the resolution for this inner conflict between needing and the denial of needing or simply not receiving. Right. So sugar becomes the quote unquote Mother, the one who sees atunes to, acknowledges, and cares for the small needy feelings and all of the conflicting emotions that they arouse.

[00:20:49] It is the answer to both relieve the tension and soothe the pain of this suppressed need for belonging, for connection, for worth. So sugar is how you compensate for this spiritual lack. This spiritual deficit. And to continue this vicious cycle consuming sugar steers us further and further away from our spirituality, from our connection, because you see there is a gland in our body known as the pineal gland and the pineal gland is known as the master gland.

[00:21:26] And the seat of spirituality in our body because of its production of DMT. DMT is the biological elixir that allows for spiritual awakening. However, the pineal gland can literally be shut down with the over-consumption of sugar. Now when we’re children, our pineal glands are open, but as we age, they begin to calcify or shut down as a result of exposure to toxins and excess quantities of certain hormones. People in countries where it’s common to eat a higher percentage of processed and refined foods have much more heavily calcified pineal glands than others.

[00:22:04] And perhaps this explains the spirituality deficit in America, and perhaps it explains why we all want to feel connected. We want their spiritual awakening on such a deeper level. We’re looking for more meaning these days for more purpose. We eat too much sugar and it’s not just making us overweight, it’s killing our intuition, our better judgment. And it’s stifling our connection to ourselves, to each other, to the universe and the planet. So it really just becomes this vicious cycle because we find comfort in sugar when we aren’t able to satisfy our spiritual needs. And the more sugar we eat, the harder it is for us to find our spirituality and feed ourselves what we’re really hungry for. 

[00:22:53] We asked Jared what he would say was his favorite aspect of the CTNC program, and I love his response. Let’s listen.

[00:23:05] Jared Fisher: From the curriculum to the faculty, I really feel like Cynthia has just pulled together some incredible resources to create a very comprehensive program that you can follow at your own pace. What I also really liked about the program. It’s not just focusing on nutrition. It brings in and ties in the psychology component, as well as the spirituality component.

[00:23:34] This program specifically, it’s such a comprehensive well-rounded program and it’s so well done and well put together. I would say it would be nearly impossible to go through this program and not come out with some amazing ideas and have at least a sense of direction as to what is it you want to be doing.

[00:24:00] Cynthia Garcia: So, how do we break out of this? How do we end this cycle? Because I’m hoping that by this point you see that sugar is much more than an addiction and it’s doing more than just making us tired and overweight. It is impacting our meaning and our purpose. So let’s first touch on the physical components that we can control.

[00:24:22] One reason that we eat so many sugary items is because of the global rise and sugar rich fast food consumption. I mean the fast food market was worth more than $539 billion. In 2016, it’s expected to top $690 billion in 2020. Not only is the fast food economy growing, but so are the portions and analysis of serving sizes at 10 popular us fast food restaurant showed that sides and desserts increased significantly in size and calories from 1986 to 2016. 

[00:25:00] And with that being said, almost all fast food meals, including everything from a cheeseburger to a Chipotle burrito bowl contain a surprisingly high amount of sugar. So, you know what that means. Grab a cookbook and get cooking at home and eat simple. Even if you’re not like a professional chef, don’t let that deter you from showing up and feeding yourself. But of course, even eating at home doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to avoid sugar altogether. 

[00:25:27] You also want to be careful what sauces and seasonings you use. Because as I mentioned earlier with spaghetti sauce, a lot of them are loaded with sugar as well. Make sure that you are prioritizing other foods that are high in protein and fiber. A balanced diet with lots of veggies will help you to ease away from snacking on sugary alternatives. And do it gradually. Right? Baby steps. Just a little bit at a time. You don’t have to, to change over night, right? Rome wasn’t built in a day, and you shouldn’t try to completely shift sugar in your life overnight either.

[00:26:01] So you can take some steps that have personally helped me a lot with lowering my sugar intake. So again, back when I was younger and I really struggled with my mental health and my physical health, sugar was very comforting to me. Like it is to all of us. I didn’t have a lot of friends when I first moved to Los Angeles and I was questioning a lot of things in my life.

[00:26:22] I was stressed. I was scared. I was unhappy. And sugary foods made me feel better. I mean, ice cream, candy, chocolate cereal, cheap Chinese takeout. It was all really comforting on those nights where I would sit alone in the dark, watching a movie on a DVD in my laptop because I didn’t have a television. Right. I didn’t have cable TV at the time. 

[00:26:47] And so I was feeding myself in other ways. I was filling that void in other ways. And sugar was certainly one of the big ways that I did that. I wasn’t building that connection with myself. I didn’t know how at the time, if I’m being really honest and I certainly wasn’t building connections with others or the environment. I was so disconnected, like just as a whole.

[00:27:13] And so I replaced those feelings of connection and joy and belonging with sugar. And I remember going through some real sugar binges and feeling so good and so happy in the moment. Like I wasn’t alone when I had the sugar high, everything was going to be okay. But of course, eventually I’d crash and burn and just feel empty and alone.

[00:27:35] So all of that to say that much of our sugar addiction comes from the fact that we’re lacking in our spiritual nutrition. And as I mentioned before, sugar often equates to love, happiness, rewards, and celebration. So if we’re not getting those from the people in our life or from the things in our lives, including our careers and our hobbies, doing things that fulfill us, then we’ll try to fill that void with sugar because underneath it all, what we need is sweetness, that sensuality, that deliciousness of life.

[00:28:05] When we’re rushed or we’re pushed, we scarcely take time to ask what real sweetness there is in life. And the result is that we become imbalanced and we seek out that sweetness of life in all the wrong places. So ask yourself this, what can you do to satisfy the spiritual void that you seek to fill with sugar?

[00:28:27] Consider the activities that make you feel content, balanced, and whole. How do you add sweetness into your life? Try stimulating your senses with pleasurable moments instead of turning to sugar for pleasure. Take out some time in your schedule to absorb, uh, a beautiful skyline, you know, watch the sunset, watch the sun rise, listen to some music, take in something that smells delicious or make contact with other people and have a deep conversation. You know, none of the day-to-day chit-chat and small talk, but a really deep conversation that feeds your soul. 

[00:29:04] It’s important that you find different ways that work for you to fill that void and for you. To try things that maybe you haven’t done in a really long time to see if that is what you’re missing. I mean, maybe you haven’t truly danced in years, sung in ages, or maybe you haven’t consumed art and the way you would like to or made art in the way you’d like. When you’re seeking sweetness in your life, find where it truly lies and then feed yourself with that. 

[00:29:38] So who can you connect with in your life that’s sweet? You know, we say all the time. Oh, she’s so sweet. He’s so sweet. They’re so sweet. Connect with the sweet people in your life. So if you’re having a hard time managing your sugar intake, I’d encourage you to stop and ask yourself, what am I really hungry for? Cause I guarantee the answer most likely won’t always be sugar.

[00:30:02] It’ll be comfort, love, ,connection celebration, and of course sweetness. And once you can identify that, then you can start feeding yourself those feelings in other ways, like some of the ways that we’ve mentioned, right? Getting in touch with yourself, with others, or with nature around you. 

[00:30:25] We are hearing from Jared one last time as he shares his epiphanes not only from his journey, of reclaiming both his and his family’s health, but also from his personal journey of becoming a certified transformational nutrition coach with ITN.

[00:30:46] Jared Fisher: The realization that I’ve come to, at least for myself, is that health above anything else is my greatest asset. I really truly believe it’s the foundation for happiness, for fulfillment, for a better life. I feel like good health just makes everything else in life better. You talk to somebody that doesn’t have their health and what is it that they want more than anything? They just want to be healthy. 

[00:31:13] With good health, I’m able to be a better father, a better husband, a better leader. It’s made such a big difference in my life. I’m so passionate about sharing that with other people, because I see so many people struggling and not knowing what to do, not knowing where to turn. My name is Jared Fisher. I live in orange county, California. I’ve been married for 13 years. I have a son Jackson a daughter Jaycee. And being involved in the health and wellness space I would say that’s really become like the centerpiece or the focal point of my life as of about eight years ago.

[00:32:00] Cynthia Garcia: Look, I want to end this episode by first saying that I am in no way saying that you should just never eat sugar again. I mean, that’s not even possible. We wouldn’t be living a balanced life. That’s just silly. If you’re celebrating something or, you know, you want that piece of chocolate or the ice cream, eat the chocolate, eat the ice cream, but do it consciously and do it with intention.

[00:32:24] The intention of this episode was to truly inform you on a serious level that sugar and sugar addiction is widespread across our world. And to explain why you might feel as though you have to have five cookies instead of one, or why you have to have sweets in general. It was to encourage you to get in touch with your spiritual nutrition and feed yourself in a different way, because it’s not that you don’t have willpower it’s that you haven’t quite found your path.

[00:32:53] So, if you are looking for more information on modern day nutrition topics, we’d love to have you join our private Facebook community. Just head on over to Facebook and search for the transformation generation group to continue the conversation there. You’ll connect with people, I’m in there as well, but people in our community who have found other ways to feed themselves that sweetness of life other than through sugar. 

[00:33:17] And if you liked this podcast episode, please follow or subscribe, leave a rating and a review so that we can continue getting information like this out to the world so that we can truly start to redefine nutrition as how you feed yourself physically, mentally, and spiritually.

[00:33:36] I hope this serves you in some small way. Thank you so much for joining me today and taking the time out to listen. You can see all the show notes and other resources for this episode. over at transformationalnutrition.com/episode011,, and I’ll be back next week with another brand new episode.